Nighthawks Set Records In State Championships

By Andy Hutchison

NEW HAVEN — Newtown High School’s boys’ and girls’ track participants competed in the CIAC Class LL Indoor Track & Field Championships at the University of New Haven’s Athletic Center on Friday, February 13. The girls placed 21st and the boys were 22nd (both of Danbury’s teams claimed first), but there was plenty of individual success for the Nighthawks as three school records were set and the Nighthawks’ participants continued the trend of improving times, jumps, and throws.

Lauren Pettinelli placed 10th in the 300-meter event, finishing in 44.90. She broke a school record that had stood since 1990. Kevin Bonacci’s 10th place long jump result of 20-1.25 broke his own record that he set the previous week at the South-West Conference Championships.

“Every time I go out I break my own record. It’s exciting,” Bonacci said.

Bonacci’s high jump of 5-8 tied a record he already shared with Rich Frankonis from 1988. Bonacci had previously tied the record earlier this year at an SWC Developmental Meet at Wesleyan.

Medals and points were given to the top six finishers in each event. Newtown’s Emily Korth earned a medal for her sixth-place finish in the pole vault event with her vault of 8-6 and Bonacci earned a sixth-place medal in the long jump with his school record-breaking leap.

Pettinelli, a sophomore, said coming into such a big meet is “nerve-racking” and even a little intimidating at first.

“It’s definitely more intense because there are about 20 teams. The competition’s a lot better,” senior runner David Hutchison, comparing this meet to a regular season meet, added.

No matter how nervous the Hawks may have been, they continued to impress the coaching staff.

“I’m just blown away. Everyone’s either met or improved on their season marks,” Assistant Coach Stephanie Ramsey said. Ramsey added that one of the tough aspects of the end of the track season is that the final jump or pole vault a student makes is one that fails. Each participant keeps competing with the bar literally being raised with each attempt until he or she does not make it over the bar.

“You get used to it. You know your last one is going to be a miss,” said Korth, who also battled the flu at the time of the championships but still managed to earn a medal.

Korth and Bonacci were impressive in the jumping and vaulting events, and Rachel Tabak and John Wlasuk finished ninth and eighth, respectively, in the shot put throw. In addition to strong performances in the field events, Newtown runners turned in some pretty solid results on the track.

“We’ve had sort of an injection of speed this year,” said Newtown Head Coach Dave Foss, pointing to underclassmen Erin Begg, Abby Blakeman, Pettinelli, Palmer Lintz, John Wlasuk, Ken Toal, Matt Genovese and others as providing a bright future for the program.

Foss was pleased with his team’s overall performance.

Begg was 11th in the 1600-meter run in 5:45.38; Pettinelli was eighth in the 55 hurdles in 9.42; Korth was seventh in the high jump (4-10); Taback’s eighth-place shot put throw was 31-08.50; Wlasuk’s ninth-place throw was 43-07.25.